Metro News Release

Bus passes available on SmarTrip® starting October 17

For the first time ever, Metro is offering weekly bus passes on SmarTrip® cards starting October 17, when bus riders will be able to load the Seven-Day Bus Pass directly onto their SmarTrip® card.

Bus passes on SmarTrip® are valid for seven consecutive days of unlimited travel on regular Metrobus and regional bus routes, including ART, DASH, DC Circulator, CUE, Fairfax Connector, Ride On and TheBus.

Unlike paper bus passes that are valid from Sunday through Saturday, the Seven-Day Bus Pass on SmarTrip® allows for added flexibility because it is activated the first day a customer uses the pass and will be valid for seven consecutive days.

As an added convenience, customers may load two bus passes at a time onto their SmarTrip® card. Once the first pass is activated and then expires, the second pass will be ready to activate.

The cost of the Seven-Day Bus Pass on SmarTrip® is $15 for the regular bus pass and $7.50 for the senior/disabled bus pass, the same cost as the paper bus passes. Customers should keep in mind that they will not be able to load a bus pass onto a SmarTrip® card that has a negative balance.

Paper bus passes will continue to be sold through the end of January with the last available paper bus pass expiring Saturday, Jan. 29, 2011.

Customers may add the Seven-Day Bus Pass to their SmarTrip® card at any Metro sales office, regional transit store or at select retail outlets. For a complete list of locations, please visit www.wmata.com/fares/smartrip/smartrip_load.cfm or call 202-637-7000.

SmarTrip® card users are encouraged to register their SmarTrip® card online so that if their card is lost, they won’t lose the stored value. Metro recently launched an enhanced SmarTrip® web site where customers can view their card balance and usage history, add multiple cards to their account, report a lost card, request a replacement card or transfer the balance to another registered card.